The present invention relates to a minute metal oxide semiconductor field-effect device (herein-after referred to as MOS device) and a method for the production of a high-performance insulating film used in the MOS device.
Previously, a thermal oxide film formed on a semiconductor substrate was used as the gate oxide film for MOS devices. In a minute MOS device using a conventional thermal oxide film as the gate insulating film, deterioration of mobility caused by an increase in the electric field acting perpendicular to the channel has become a serious problem. Since the deterioration of mobility reduces the current driving capability and switching speed of the MOS device, it has been one of the major factors working against the further miniaturization of the MOS device.
On the other hand, it has been studied among some researchers to use a oxynitride film instead of the thermal oxide film in a minute MOS device for improvement of reliability such as dielectric strength. At the present point of time, however, the oxynitride film can only provide a very low mobility as compared to the thermal oxide film, which has been one of the serious problems preventing the oxynitride film from coming in practice.